240V solar lead acid LED head torch. (With schematic.)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- This is by far the chunkiest head torch I've taken apart. While the concept of solar recharging while on your head is interesting, it's so awkward that I think you'd probably want to take it off immediately after use.
It does work. It provides a good wash of light and a slightly too narrow beam for close work. I'm also pretty sure the battery will run the LEDs for a good length of time at a gradually reducing intensity as the battery discharges. The 3 ohm resistor does hint at running the LEDs at around a watt for either the COB or beam.
I'll be keeping the little solar panel, battery, LEDs and reflector. But other than that this light is just a bit too bulky to use versus a compact lithium powered unit.
I'd estimate the power factor as being in the region of 0.016 because it's deriving a 4V supply from 240V via a phase shift. If being charged at apparent power the unit would meter at 14W instead of less than half a watt real power.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
www.bigclive.co...
This also keeps the channel independent of TH-cam's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
"I'll try avoid eating it." - I was half expecting that to be followed by "You know what, I'm going to eat it".
Göran Andersson lead salts are supposedly tasting sweet... may have contributed to the fall of the roman empire.
@@cadelfistro1824 Yes, they do taste sweet.
This looks like the kind of gimmick which would be among the prizes for skee-ball ticket redemption.
"Acid" "head" and "torch" raised a completely different image in my mind.
Anyway, save the headband too. They're good for those magnifier headpieces that come with a piece-of-crap strap.
That image would be correct, if it gets overcharged and then exposed to the slightest spark of static electricity. Well, it might not become a torch, but you'll have a brief fireball of about 7000F and 180psi, followed by warm pieces of plastic, lead, and sulfuric acid flying into your face.
In reality the average user following the directions can probably use it charge it for the recommended time and have the battery work for months or even years before degrading slowly without any explosion.
But charging a battery without any automatic voltage regulation or even an indicator to tell when it's fully charged just seems wrong to me.
@@deltab9768 Well, SLABs are more forgiving that lithium batteries charge-cycle-wise, and a lithium battery throwing a tantrum on your forehead wouldn't be much of an improvement over what a SLAB will do. Cheap lithium chargers are a bane too, and there's no technological excuse for either kind of battery not to have a safer circuit backing it up these days. But manufacturers *will* try to save a yuan wherever they can...
Yeah this is the lesser of two evils compared with a lithium battery, but its still evil nonetheless. I just don't like the fact that they designed it to be constantly overcharging and overdischarging the battery. The fact that it's in a large plastic case that will accumulate hydrogen and oxygen as it overcharges may or may not add injury to the insult of having the battery dry up or get sulfated after several discharging/charging cycles
Literally for 5 cents you could get a .5 watt 4.5volt zener diode and make this into an effective charge controller for that little SLA battery.
@@deltab9768 Not disagreeing.
You gotta (reverse-)admire the sheer greedy Capitalism of the Chinese when it comes to cost-cutting though. They clearly don't consider repeat customers to be a thing.
You're right. It's weird knowing that somebody spent a fair amount of money to get all those components, and one of the most critical (the battery) will get cooked in a year or two. And... they may get a repeat customer. Just maybe. And that's the way of planned obsolescence. Instead of taking cheap components and making a surprisingly durable minimalist machine out of them, you make it cost more, do less, die soon, and pray to Mao that the customers don't catch on.
The black version would look like wearing a camera with flash on your head :D
Fully compatible with the 1970's
@LMAOer You may joke, but I have a Clansman 24V handcrank generator. A prepper's delight
I have the gear motor from the roll up door on an old broken trailer. Turn that and you get 20-24v, a solid .5a or better. I'm surprised how well it works.
Apart from the LEDs. In the 70's you could only get red or green LEDs, and they were so dim that you could barely tell if they were on in daylight.
Looks like they re-purposed the moulds for a kid's toy camera for this, very odd shape for a headtorch... :P
I will say though, them little SLA batteries are pretty cute, if a bit pointless in this lithium cell age, but waste not want not and all... :D
They were good. Better than the 9 lives. :-) Yes, I am old and invested in Lithium. :-0 I always wished for a better battery. Got my wish. Now it's too late. Mom can't afford the toys I want today.
A lithium battery would catch fire if charged too long with that simple charging circuit
True. A lead acid in a big plastic case would be primed and ready to blow from the slightest spark After a few hours of overcharging (yes, even with this tiny charging current which takes half a day to get a normal charge) , but a lithium cell would probably blow up spontaneously.
twocvbloke yeah, whats with the yellow thing on top lmao
There's 2 sets of LED lights one makes a narrow beam the other is broader
Finally - an Aolar LED lamp!
... an Aole for my A-hole ...
Powered by Mediterranean garlic-based condiments.
@@crimsonhalo13 WTF
it's even a "High-Power" one, not just an ordinary Aolar Lamp!
@@crimsonhalo13 Nina Hagen?
They were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should
I met Clive Sinclair, I know what you mean.
commander keen? old skool!
@@Francois_Dupont I was just about to say so bad Commander Keen as well.
Never played it, but I have heard about it.
I was thinking of Jurassic Park
They should have, albeit with a simple zener across the battery with a voltage rating between 4 and 4.6v. That would make the whole thing safer and longer lasting by a long shot.
From the perspective of a motorcyclist: The lead battery is much more resistant to overcharging than lithium-ion batteries. So the charging circuit can be much cheaper and easier to manufacture.
Greetings,
Simmie
"Spray acid everywhere - what an absolute delight" Should be the channels motto for awhile lol
So, I've read,, back in the 1800s, they used to spray carbollic acid in hospitals to disinfect the air.
And that was called science...?
Science is trying things and attempting to find out what does, and what does not, work. So in a sense, yes....
Kinda sounds like the Twitter user experience.
The worst part is this doesn't have any charge regulation or indicator. And the battery is in a poorly ventilated plastic case. That battery will dry out and also fill the case with hydrogen pretty quickly (a few hours of overcharging)
@@stuartmcconnachie
Lol
I am trying to be funny..
But if we were to go down that road..
Blood letting, and using leaches was also science...
There is the point of do no harm?
Or,, like they used to say...the operation was a success , but the patient died...
Didn't they used to make sure that the medicine or treatment was safe and good, before they used it on people?
Now ,,, by the commercials on the telly,,, if you have a heart beat,,, you shouldn't use the medicine...
Any how... thanks for the reply. .. 😉
You missed the funniest bit of text on the box - the word Aolar instead of Solar. Well, at least that's what I see it as trying to say.
Solar=something about the sun. Aolar=something about areolas.
Big Clive, just to say thanks for all your amazing and clear video uploads, I'm a tinkerer with electronics; and your channel has fed me with so much inspiration and knowledge over the years. Not to mention the Legendary joule thief, which has led me into countless hours of coil optimisation and circuit tinkerings. I was in Scotland for the first time in my life over Xmas, visiting relatives in Wick - such an amazing experience - lovely warm people, and such stunning scenery. Thanks again Big Clive.
I like the image of someone wearing it with an extension cord draped off their head.
SueBobChicVid 1976, Donbass: images.app.goo.gl/fi7Fabk9kctKCxjCA
@@herosstratos that is linking to a battery pack.
@@herosstratos miners headlamps Yes, they have an external battery pack with a cable. That's what's in the image.
@@Francois_Dupont Yep miners type headlamp. With the battery pack and a cable. Like I just commented on the comment you're referring to on.
"240 volt head torch" made the thought "400w, HID, extension cord powered" come to mind for me. Inspite of the title also saying it had a solar charger and a battery and LED technology.
What a nice video to listen/watch in the background whilst I continue soldering my new custom bike light, 324 3mm LEDs total in a 18x18 array,198 3mm LEDs soldered so far, 126 to go...
I'll wire it so it can be lit up in 3 sections (center, middle, outer), each section dimmable through MOSFETs & a microcontroller.
Rbg LEDs I hope lol
@buddy guy Ah just plain white I'm afraid, 3mm chosen because I can pack them closer together and their beamspread is so much nicer than 5mm or a single 30watt or 50watt LED with lens.
However I am planning on making the back light a KITT larson scanner with 8x 1watt red LEDs :D
Seems a damn shame, if not outright silly, that they couldn't bother placing the heavy SLA battery at the _rear_ of the headband, as many of the better head-lamps do. I have to admit, I really like SLAs + LEDs together, especially as emergency lighting solutions. Within reasonable limits, those batteries will take much more abuse and keep on working.
This study is great. The style of clarification, explanation, and points became apparent. These screens are suitable for beginners like me
Really Thanks to you
"24 hours for a full solar charge"
so... anybody not in the arctic circle, do they expect you to leave it out for 2-2.5 days?
It would be highly ineffective in the arctic during 6 months of the year :p I would pay real money to watch the product development process/meetings for any of the cheapest chinese products. It really seems like they have no concept of safety or the intended use of the products... but then they make 10,000 of them anyway.
@@someguy2741 cost is the only concern
And to think the solar charging might be the better option here. The plug in charge circuitry overcharges the battery eventually. it's unable to
vent quickly due to being in a plastic case, and a quick calculation
based on the size of the case and the charging circuitry says that a few
hours of overcharging will replace all the air in the case with flammable hydrogen enriched with oxygen. And that's surrounding something that has the words "acid" and "lead"
in it's name. Yeah, perfectly comfortable having that tied to my face with a wool/poly static electric hat next to it.
Also, overcharging an SLA wil eventually reduce the capacity. Eventually as in, a few dozen discharge cycles will make it useless.
hi big clive i love gardening and recently bought a ph meter that also measure light lumens and humidity,can you please make a video on how those equipments work,the box it came says it uses no batteries,but it has a magnetic neddle,so i am very curious to learn the eletronics involved in it
hey people help here like this comment,i am a big fan
The sulfation happens as a side effect of converting the chemical energy into electrical energy. It is when in a flat state you get the lowest concentration of acid. Charging reverses the sulfation of the plates causing the acid concentration of the electrolyte to increase and the plates to revert to lead and lead dioxide.
Yeah, that sounds correcter.
@@millomweb "The Correctifier"?
@@28YorkshireRose12 Yeah, using a correctifier chamber.
Should have in big bold font superimposed on a giant yellow sunburst explosion “Exclusive Baghdad Battery Technology!”
In all seriousness, that is the most adorable little lead acid battery ever.
Actually, the electrolyte's sulphur content increases as the battery charges.
Another reason for using a lead acid battery may be that the charging circuit is simpler.
@Matthayi Naalaaman Actually, lead acid batteries need neither constant current or constant voltage for charging. All they need is something with a voltage a bit higher than the battery's fully charged voltage and perhaps a resistor to limit the maximum current that can flow into a fully discharged battery.
In my youth we made chargers for car and motorcycle batteries from just a 12VAC transformer (approx. 15V when rectified), a full wave rectifier and a resistor and they did the job nicely. In fact, I still have (& use) the bike battery charger I made that way 40+ years ago.
@Matthayi Naalaaman The specific device this video is about might have a constant current charger bit that is not necessary and probably not even desirable.
The 15V my bike battery charger produces will vary depending on the line voltage so it certainly is NOT a constant voltage source. And since the battery's voltage increases as it charges the voltage across the resistor decreases, resulting in less current passing through the battery the closer it gets to fully charged so the resistor is in no way a constant current source.
Since this works much better than modern "smart" chargers it is obvious that a lead acid battery needs neither constant voltage or constant current to charge.
As for adding water, the chemical reaction inside the battery when you charge it causes some of the sulphur atoms in the electrolyte to move to the plates, liberating some of the hydrogen atoms in the H2SO4 electrolyte in the process and when you discharge the battery sulphur atoms move from the plates to the electrolyte and oxygen is liberated.
Sealed cells don't need to have water added because the liberated hydrogen and oxygen are kept inside the cell where they can recombine but in vented batteries some of them exit the cell before they can recombine so you have to add water (H2O) periodically to replace them.
@Matthayi Naalaaman Your definition of "constant" doesn't match what my dictionary says: "Constant" means "not changing", which is far from your "limited range of change" interpretation. As I said, part of the resistor's purpose is to make the current decrease as the battery charges and decreasing current is NOT constant. If chosen carefully the current will start out high enough to charge the battery from full discharge and end up just enough to overcome self discharge and keep it charged (trickle charge).
I'll agree with youthat the charging circuit in this particular device may not be ideal and will probably kill the battery but I stand by my original statement that a lead acid battery needs a lot simpler charging circuit than a LiIon needs.
@Matthayi Naalaaman Words have specific meanings. You can't change what they mean to suit what you want them to mean.
When the 1uF capacitor shorts, the SLA battery will be well done. Rodalco would be excited.
The capacitor would probably burn open circuit and/or the breaker would trip long before that tank of a battery was really hurt. Now if you forget and leave it charging for an extra day and then take it off and get a little spark as it brushes against your dry staticky hair... that'll be quite the spectacular misadventure.
That head light looks like it is modelled on an SLR Camera, and like those cheep little digital cameras for kids you can get from Amazon. But I bet it a useful tool that does the job.
Fantastic video as always Mate 👍👍👍❤️
'Charge via solar panel for 24hrs' - for use only in the Artic/Antarctic Circle?!
@Logic Hurts Idiots You're lucky if in your entire lifetime, you have an original thought. Don't make assumptions and try not to be a cynical douche canoe.
@@Jimmeh_B his point still stands because it is a copy of someone else's more popular comment. "Don't make assumptions and try not to be a cynical douche canoe." equally applys you too my dude
@@DanafoxyVixen r/whoosh.
But thanks for the "life lesson"
I love it when you're say 60,and you ask yourself, is this asbestos? For a second you worry, then you remember, maybe you'll worry about it more in 30 years when it starts to affect you 😅
9:44 I lost concentration for a few seconds and then I suddenly seen large photographs of jelly sweets
As someone who has been installing and servicing alarm systems for the past 12 years, check your battery yearly and replace every 3 years even if they look okay. Sooner if you experience frequent power failures in your area. And if you can, test them with a load tester. But if you don't have one, disconnect the AC voltage coming into your panel with the battery still connected and see if everything stays turned on. Obviously inform your alarm monitoring company before doing so.
I have personally experienced the Hydrogen / Oxygen released from a charging battery.
In the mid-seventies, as a penniless apprentice, my mode of transport was an old Honda 250 equipped with a knackered battery.
My Mother took exception to me charging the battery in the kitchen, so I used to sneak it up to my bedroom.
One night, after a heavy session in the pub, I went up to my room, lit a cigarette and BOOM.
Fortunately, I was not badly hurt, but it did deplete my beer funds replacing the ruined bed linen.
I learned to ride on a CB250N - bought it very second-hand (with 45k miles on the clock), and it lasted me a further five years (and 120k miles!) of use as a commuter machine! Simple, and virtually indestructible. Next machine was a CX 500 - and that was just as durable (hence why it was the machine of choice for the motorcycle courier crowd!)
SLA batteries are popular with portable medical equipment like vital signs monitors, syringe drivers and stuff like that that's designed to be used mains powered - as a battery back up. Also portable x-ray machines - where the weight is used for stability while the x-ray head is spanned over a patient. Also due to that weight, the transport of them is motor powered - so the LA batteries provide power for that too.
But then, modern x-ray heads are more like hand-held guns ! - for smaller x-rays.
A lead acid battery exploding is something you don't want to experience more than once
Long in the distant past, I had a '49 Ford with 6 volt electrical system and an unknown number of miles on it. There was discussion with the mechanic about whether the slow starter speed was a battery or starter problem so he pulled the started and placed the battery terminal of the starter on the battery's positive post and the starter's case on the negative post - getting a spark in the process that exploded the battery.
Fortunately, the weakest point of the battery's case was one of the bottom corners so the acid sprayed down and out over the engine instead of up toward us at the side of the car. Cost me a battery, the trousers I was wearing (acid holes up several inches on the legs) and the sneakers I was wearing (canvas doesn't survive acid either).
I still use lead acid batteries (vehicles) but the ones I use for solar are sealed (AGM) so I'm not dealing with liquid acid or that nice explosive mix of hydrogen and oxygen.
The acid did a great job of getting years of grease and dirt off that side of the engine ;-)
Great blast from the past .all your old videos are coming back up .even after I already have given thumbs up .TH-cam is at it again
It seems to be having a retro moment right now.
@@bigclivedotcom Yest it has ,Seen some of your videos and others from almost 5 years ago !Your brother has been giving me a good education but unfortunately supply is limited in Toronto ,Taxed to help and 3 times the price than from Scotland .I did manage to get some bottles at a premium from the Whiskey Exchange .Same problem with electrical/electronic supplies .Everything's becoming unobtanium .From din rails and terminal blocks to relays contactors and PLCs .What a mess .I have been off work for since April 2021,it's a long road to recovery from COVID ,let's just say your videos keep the brain going .Can't believe how much I have forgotten.That Brain fog is real bad at times .Wouldn't want to be working on any equipment in my state .Mistakes can be expensive and deadly .Love your break down of eBay/Amazon/ gadgets so many fraudulant claims being made by these sellers .
Tiny bubbles
In the cell
Make me sadder
Make me unwell...
Don Hoe,, or Dean Martin?
Beautiful
They have been making this style of lead acid battery for years and years, even before the lead-free craze so i fint your rant strange clive. they aren't common in the west but ive seen them when on trips to Sri Lanka and other Asian country's. I think it comes down to that they are simple devices and a resistor charging circuit means they are very low cost to make, even compared to other battery types. ive brought back some LED torches on my trips that have used these small SLA batterys and they go alright but they dont seem to last more than 2-3 years even if you do charge them every 2 months during inactivity.
They would last 10 years no problem if they put a half decent charge controller on them. But nooo, they build them so that they are getting grossly over charged and over discharged every time they get used.
They're not uncommon as the backup battery in home burglar alarms. I replaced mine last year - the old one had been in there since 2001 (probably last replaced by my Dad before he had a stroke in 2000).
High power Aolar!!! ??? Surely someone would have checked spelling before printing the box !!
They did - and it passed.
I would like to see a video called 'Clive's Favorite Head Torches" or something similar named , that would be nice to see given his experience with circuitry and using them in the field!
big C gives head?
There’s lead in it 🤣 I don’t know why that made me laugh so hard.
Sealed Lead Acid batteries are a well-proven technology albeit a bit on the heavy side. But if you want something cheap and reliable then they are a good choice.
that blue plastic outer casing looks a lot like a camera. i wonder if it could be used as another product.
I've tried refilling those with distilled water. All they really do is develop a small amount of voltage again, but don't really charge or work. Once it gets to the point that most of the electrolyte is gone, the battery is toast since there will be surface reactions that take place once the plates are dry.
The brown plate in a lead acid battery is made from lead peroxide,sulphated batteries are the one which no longer work. The Chinese or at least Hong Kong have been making miniature lead acid batteries for many years I had a pifco torch in the 70's that had a lead acid battery.
The electrolyte becomes more acidic when charged and is neutral pH when fully discharged, H2SO4 + PbO>PbSO4 + H2O, 2 e- are exchanged between the plates via the external circuit. Pb is reduced to metallic form on the sulfate plate during charge, while the lead in the oxide plate is taken from metallic form and oxidized to Pbo.
I have seen hydrogen reactions caused by giant Lead acid batteries at work (we used to use them as a short term power backup), so be careful if you put about 4 tons of em in a room without proper ventilation :)
This was a major problem with WW2 era submarines, which all used huge banks of lead-acid batteries as the rechargeable power source when submerged, driving enormous DC electric motors. The batteries would generate small quantities of hydrogen and oxygen - small for a single car battery, but when you have many tons of submarine scale batteries, the hydrogen production becomes a significant problem: It only takes 5% by volume of hydrogen in air to form a potentially explosive mixture, and the battery compartment of a submarine is full of switchgear which provides plenty of ignition sources.
As a result, the battery compartments had hydrogen metering systems which would trigger an alarm if the hydrogen content of the air went above 4% - and this imposed a limit on how long the submarine could remain submerged. Even if there was still enough oxygen available for the crew to breathe, they had to surface and ventilate if the hydrogen content got too high, because they couldn't risk the battery compartment exploding.
A friend of mine got sprayed in the face with acid while servicing one of those, he had goggles in his pocket but didn't wear them for some reason. Horrid stuff.
It just made bubbling noises? It really should have a steam type whistle so you would know when full charge was reached.
Fun fact, sla batteries are quite easy to recycle, presumably due to their simplicity
19:20 Actually... the acid would remain, its the water that evaporates... cause during charging its hydrogen/oxygen thats released which is why SLA/Flooded have an explosion warning and to keep away from flame. If you are able to remove the caps there are rubber vent caps, taking those off and adding a few drops of distilled water should allow the battery to operate longer long as its not been dried out for too long cause SLA tend to swell when tried out
Lead acid will always work out better for a Glasgow kiss.
0:01 - That looks suspiciously like a repurposed el-cheapo 35mm fixed-focus camera shell...
Fun fact: the sealed lead acid batteries in cars are pretty much the same as they were decades ago. You **CAN** still add water to cells, and the cells CAN vent and dry out - instead of the nice round caps over each cell from Ye Olden Days, the vents are rectangular and a bit of a hassle to pry off. Of course, before anyone goes tinkering around with SLA batteries, wear proper protective gear (gloves, safety squints, waterproof apron, etc) and keep a small container with baking soda/water solution to wash off any spilled acid from your skin.
As a plus, the baking soda/water solution is the perfect remedy for corroded battery terminals.
My grandpa used to swear 7-Up for cleaning battery terminals.
And I think as we always will end up finishing and 7UP from the bottle afterwards.
I just remembered that I'd forgotten about that for years.
God Rest his soul. Unfortunately, he's passed away many years ago.
You should have seen his bench grinder.
It was built from washing machine parts.
And I don't remember what the motor was from.
Amounting for it all the parts was the workbench itself.
I remember the built-in Let's Twist and reverse rotation.
Bought later on when he was using it. I realized something. The grinding wheel is turning the wrong direction.
But he said no, it's not.
However, my father doing me better.
Told my grandfather which of course was his father. Ironically.
That if I said that was the case. He better listen.
Right then and there he untwisted the belt and reverse the direction of the grinding wheel. And stay that way ever since.
At least until he got a real bench grinder. That was to replace that one. If I remember correctly the motor failed on the homemade one.
Oh, by the way. One year that summer camp.
There Was no power in the cabins.
There never was.
However in ours there was.
Well, we went off grid.
Old deep cycle batteries.
From various applications.
An old Small Engine.
An alternator out of a vehicle.
The drive belt.
An old I think it was a shopping cart that we've been discombobulated.
Voice be used for the belt guard.
By the way, the engine had electric start.
There is ignition switch.
First start and run.
And all of the light fixtures and such were stripped off old vehicles.
Including the old dead school bus.
Heck we even had Refrigeration.
In terms of be able to connect power to something. That was not hardwired to that system.
In addition to cigarette lighter receptacles.
And quarter inch Jax.
We built power strips. With old towel racks from sinks and such those thin ones with the male fights on the ends.
Homemade alligator clips out of clothespins
Screws and wire.
Most of the light switches are salvaged either for the vehicles or just old wall switches.
Heck we had. An old sink hooked up to water pump. 55-gallon Drums of water.
So we can wash up or shave.
And yes, there was a mirror. With two fluorescent lights.
And believe it or not. Those lights were running off 12 volt.
That's what the whole system was.
I built-in inverter circuit to drive to fluorescence.
Both two football teams were in series.
We also modified other fluorescent fixtures. As well.
And so we're just bulbs hung up from the rafters with wire leads attached to the inverters I built.
As you can see I'm into electronics and just about everything else. .
By the way, I didn't say we had Refrigeration, right?
How well to RV refrigerators.
Some of the people at camp that ranted realize what I was able to do and supported on this. That's how I found out about the dead Vehicles stuff.
We are on a car radio.
Which is also said that which we use the cassette adapter to go from a CD player even.
But with the refrigeration it wasn't just running off the 12 volt system either.
And so our guys like coffee, so I read up a coffee maker even.
It was actually a mr. Coffee.
However, we did not have a hundred twenty volt AC power.
Obviously you would not run that Off 4 volts, right?
Exactly.
Then How did you get the mr. Coffee working? Lookout electricity?
Back to the RV refrigerators.
LP gas.
AKA propane.
World's first gas mr. Coffee.
Oh, by the way, we also have ventilation.
Electric radiator fans in the windows.
We even read up a ceiling fan.
If I remember correctly, the motor was actually out of a food processor.
The ceiling fan which was scratch-built was belt driven.
However, there needed to be a start run switch.
because there was not enough pork to start the fan but once it got going your keep running on the food processor motor.
Can't remember what the motor that was the starring butter came from but it was quite a bit of torque.
The brown color is the lead oxide working as the positive electrode. The sulfation (that makes the battery perform poorly) can be seen as the white-ish patches on both plates.
How hard would it be to put a lithium battery in and greatly increase life?
@bigclivedotcom I need to get hold of one of these. Care to point me in the direction? The bay of e isnt helping me.... Thank you for another great video!
Try poundland or banggood.
DerogativePeanut - I have ask the question - *WHY?*
Hell, it might be cheaper than buying a small SLA battery by itself. Some ofbthese things were made to use up old inventory.
@@Mark1024MAK I have a good friend who collects things that look like cameras but aren't.
brilliant design! Why worry about batteries or solar cells when you can just plug it into the mains via an extension cable?!
Unfortunately, the chargers all recharge it slower than the light depletes it.
Hey Clive, have you seen the graphene composite batteries that are available now? I’d love if you could do a tear down of one and various tests like you do with lithium!
Most wall mounted emergency lamps here in Brazil use those batteries, they barely last a year, and are being discarded in landfills by the millions.
A lead acid battery on your forehead. Now I really have seen it all.
As compared to lithium, I'm on the fence on that one. Acid burn or fire burn.
Raymond Mucklow I wasn’t thinking of danger as much as weight.
Fou have never used Bing with safe search turned off
I suppose it's a step up from the oil lamps early miners would strap to their head!
I'm waiting for the next big thing. Supercapacitor driven head lamp (recharge in seconds, lasts ages :-) ) Unfortunately current performance is really inadequate (and yes, I've given this idea go in the past :-) )
The scrap value for lead acid batteries is pretty good, I got £8 for my old car battery. I got a Varta silver 54ah 530cca with a 5 year warranty for £37.50 on a clearance sale at euro car parts (I checked the date, it was 6 months old but the voltage still read 12.8v). It makes me wonder how they make a profit on batteries considering you only get 50% scrap value for lead inside a battery. Although I was shopping around and there's a large array of battery sizes that fit my car and I went for the cheapest (063) instead of the original size (202), which is actually smaller then the 063 but also less common so it's more expensive.
That sounds almost like an AGM battery..
With The fiberglass.
Not sure if it's actually a woven mat or what although?
But sealed is kind of a misnomer sort of.
There is also what's called a valve regulated battery.
Which is technically a sealed lead acid.
This may be one of those?
Where it is sealed, but automatically releases pressure when it builds up.
Such as in on charge.
Or especially overcharge.
There are conditions other conditions that Can cause this though
.
The type of sealed lead acid batteries.
I'm most familiar with.
Is the gel cell battery, which is The electrolyte is in a gel form.
Hence the name.
And an AGM battery absorbed glass mat.
Where are the large light is absorbed into fiberglass mat.
There are a few other types as well.
Although I think non-spillable may be a better choice of words.
Although I'm not going to get into that can of worms.
But I think tragically non-spillable is a different type altogether.
By the way, does anyone remember the old old old emergency lights?
That were typically green.
Not the car light but the housing.
That would have the two large lamps on top generally.
Big big heavy glass lamps.
Typically an amp meter on the front or side.
A large pilot lamp.
And typically very very Rusty.
Around the edges, especially.
And the batteries would have generally two discs. Green and red visible through a slot in the metal case of the emergency light fixture.
Those batteries were not sealed batteries.
But flooded lead-acid batteries.
Hence the rusting.
I remember when they were putting in new emergency lights in places that I do two people are doing it or the people that work there. Whatever.
That new me.
Well Salvage time.
I salvaged many fixtures like that. Not necessarily the old old ones, but just ones it been updated and replaced. Or had something wrong with them.
The mere fact once I want to salvage in a system. That used 120 volts DC.
There was a few. Big battery cases in the system spread throughout the building is large enough that had more than one power pack for the building.
This is not the only things like that. I ever salvaged.
Bear fact my parents had a rule.
If we ever got rid of it it Got stripped for anything that might be remotely useful.
For example when we got the new washer and dryer.
Stripped for parts.
Both the washer in the dryer motor I was abusing my shop.
And the one for the dryer I left the fan assembly usable.
Cuz that was dust collection and exhaust.
Also someone gave me an old Montgomery Ward dryer blower which one update my dust collection system in the end.
Which I also had a power take-off on.
And also could be hooked up for exhaust as well. When need be.
I even learned up using an old Kirby vacuum in the shop.
Had to flex shaft as well. Yes made by Kirby..
And not only that I actually built advice for my salvaged head 4 the Kirby from another one that didn't work.
So that I could have belt drive off the motor.
I'm thinking about getting a Kirby again..
And if I do I will get the flex shaft attachment for sure.
Be handy to have a 1 horsepower flex shaft tool.
Thanks. Dremel on steroids.
As well as I would want to fight a Kirby Suds good. Pore suction into the jar, that would hold fluid Where is sprayer originally.
So that when you're using the hose. If you pick up something you shouldn't they would wind up in that container is still going through? The impeller on the motor.
If I plug something in, and it starts bubbling- the last place it'll go is on my head. :P
Especially if it's bubbing the most unstable mixture of hydrogen and oxygen you could have, and it's trapped in a big plastic case, with lots of sulphuric acid soaked lead shrapnels inside.
Something just feels so dumb about charging a 4v battery with 340v current limited without anything to tell you when its ready. Low power factor, low efficiency, undercharging the battery, overcharging the battery and drying it out, over discharging the battery and sulfating it so it won't be rechargeable anymore are all parts of this lights normal operation. And that's when things are going good for it!
Whether it always has a flammable level of hydrogen in it after overcharging I'm not sure. If you're lucky some of it might leak out of the casing before you put it in ypur dry staticky hair.
how long does it last when spontaneous combusting?
Lead-acid is probably still great for the defence industry manufacturers.
I've had a bunch of products with these little lead acid batteries and they all died within a few months of use.
Mosquito rackets, rechargeable LED lights, emergency light and a zapper.
@@GadgetAddict
LiPo / Li-Ion work very well in mosquito rackets.
I wonder if those products just charged it until it dried up from overcharge? That seems to be the way this one works, after all.
@@lostjohnny9000 I modified both of my mosquito zappers to use small LiPo packs after the built in batteries went kaput 👍
Hmm, SLA Battery - SLAB? One mighty big slab to strap on the front of one's head.
My personal favourite is the "Photon Pump" which has a 6 LED array on the front, simple on/off operation (no silly half lit/halfwit mode, nor SOS, or flashing modes) just how I like them. It has a 3x AAA NiMH battery pack on the rear (to balance to load on your nut), and only need to charge 2~3 times per winter. There will be lamps ten times better, but at the price, it's perfect for my needs.
You could 3d print a battery holder to fit in this light and still have the cells secure. maybe some kind of flat cell will be more space effective than 18650 would be a cool project. also make an new circuit board that reuses the original switch etc but with charcing circuit for lithium. Looks pretty much like lights they sell in dollar/china crap warehouses here in sweden. Years ago they used to be incandescent. My dad had one in a cold attic the PB/So4 battery explains why it only worked the first time he used it.
There's plenty of (legitimate) market for AGM batteries in UPS and backup applications. No need to be shoving them in lamps/etc. This is what happens when your government subsidizes industry too much. If these vendors had to pay for the real shipping costs they wouldn't put big bulky and heavy LA batteries in their dime-store lamps.
Yeah. Those batteries are expensive and heavy and need a charge controller if you want them to last more than a few charging cycles and not fill the case with oxyhydrogen. Putting them in a head lamp is just a lame idea. Much rather have a NIMH battery that I can charge in a multipurpose charger and then reload into the lamp.
I bet the beam from that head torch boings about in a way that almost any other cheapo head torch could improve upon :o(
Amazed to see a Luxeon style led though, I imagine it's not a real Luxeon of course.
'love' those fully uninsulated prongs
The entire "keep lead out of solder" thing makes me laugh. I go to the shooting range and fire about a pound of it into a hill every week.
I have this camo flashlight that I bought from the store next door and it had the same battery. I previously modded it to charge on USB power. I took it out one day and it wouldn't work so I tried charging it and still nothing. It would only work when plugged into USB power. Time for a new battery pack.
A similar issue happened on my Bell & Howell light bar and it had two 4 volt SLA batteries and it wouldn't work. I replaced the two batteries with a small two cell power bank with the light wired right to the power bank batteries.
That's clearly Thomas the Tank Engine.
cant understand how the connection from ac+ line to led in charging state is capped to 6v.
4.4V battery + 2*0.7 full bridge rectifier = 5.8V
the AC is shunted through the 1uF cap which impedance is somewhere around Xc = 3K ohm.
spoon-fed. thanks 😋
Personally I think I'd convert this one to LiPo. There's enough room where the AAAs were and the BMM could easily fit where the wall plug was. Just a thought mate.
You're cheating on the Hopi? How dare you
I miss the flickering.
Where can you buy hopi meters from anyway
@@thepurdychannel8866 AliExpress
@@sasodoma ah
I never thought of Clive as a "two timer" - Love triangles? Never work out!
What is the millamp hour of that little SLA?
At a guesstimate 500mAh.
They only need an metal housing.😄
how on earth can the alarm go off if there's a power cut and the battery is flat?
how do i find this
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124011581792
Nice! That's actually a really good price for a SLA battery and a solar cell.
Need to change the title to "Aolar LED Lamp", as we all know, the Chinese are expert spellers!
I've wondered about this. There are automatic translators available - Google Translate is one. There are spellcheckers available. There are, Lord help us, human translators available; some native speakers of both Chinese and English (Hong Kong, at least, will have both). So why is documentation on cheap Chinese goods written in weird "Chinglish"? A country of several billion people must have a few that can produce stuff that's recognisably English, surely?
Wearing it on your head not turned on someone could think you're wearing a poor mans action cam ;-)
Were you using voice recognition like I do?
Not being Creek or anything, but just so you're aware.
Because where it says thing,
I think you mean think.
But it happens to all of us. Don't worry understood mention it.
Very common to miss type it so just so you know.
@@aaronbrandenburg2441 Thanks. I've corrected it.
My comments to show support for your Videos are as follows. -Big Thumbs Up
I don't know why I have such a strange like for lead-acid cells in pocket format over lithium or NiMH cells, but I do.
Me too. I also have a dislike for charging any kind of battery without either voltage regulation or at least some way of monitoring the state of charge. Seeing a device like this seems like a sad waste. If you always undercharge you will have limited run time, and if you overcharge you will quickly dry out the cells. And you'll never get it in the goldilocks zone unless you have a state of charge indicator or charge controller.
MORNING!! Saturday 8th February 7.26am...bong goes the notification...ahh Big Clive..good start to the weekend...lead acid too... C'mon let's be avenue!!!! 👉💎👉👍
Normally I toss the hv circuit and the lead acid battery and put a 18650 and a tc4056 board.
What about replacing the SLA battery with a lithium one ?
That is even more likely to blow up since they stupidly don't have a charge controller. Bad enough with SLA, truly dangerous with lithium
@@deltab9768 I mean put a PROTECTED lithium cell of course...
18:46
Next Up: Eating candy on the workbench with delicious shiny lead sprinkles
1 Week Later: Why the Earth is flat and NASA is fake
What is purpose of diode on right side on the schematic ?.
@Delta B I mean put a PROTECTED lithium cell of course...
Sounds more like 'Led Head Torture' to me.
Clive the video you did a little wile ago on those cheep voltage indicators ? Is there any way of adding one or two extra components to the circuit board to stop it banging out RCDs when testing between line and earth? I am asking for a friend out of curiosity.
That happens with the expensive ones too. The trick is to test between live and neutral first to heat the internal PTC up. Then immediately test live to earth and it shouldn't trip.
Yes that’s why we mainly use our voltage indicator to prove dead when we do safe isolation. Also that why I think the cheep one do have there uses . Prove it is working on a none source say the incoming side of the main switch and then use to prove dead as we do with our fluke or kewtech voltage indicator,I trust them more than I would a neon screwdriver. Thank you for your kind reply 👍👍
All the star boards I have are metal PCBs with no fiberglass.
"I'll try not eating it." You got it on your hands, so you most likely failed on that one.
Good video though, thank you.
Very interesting
Did it come with a neck brace?
whats the idea behind taking power for the led from before the rectifier? higher voltage?
To allow either the solar panel or mains charger to light the LED when in use.
When you said ok I had a mouth full off coffee and spit it out laughing lol
The Chemist in me says: The brown electrode is the anode and the brown stuff is lead dioxide (PbO2). The kathode shoud be grey (caked lead powder). In a dicharged state, both will be whiteish - lead suflate (PbSO4).
You could use it while charging! Just wear it outside in bright daylight and turn it on. DUH!
just put a mirror in front of it
@@rustmc Self charging light! You just broke the laws of physics!
Bet that puppy is heavy. Out with the Lead Acid in with the 18650's. Yea, life would be good again. Is there room for three 18650 ? Guess the PV would just about work for a Yard Light.
Motorised bicycles have been using sealed lead thingies since the eighties iirc.
Yeah, it's an old reliable technology; at least when coupled with even a crude charge controller like a zener diode or a voltometer that shows when to pull it of the charger.
I'm pretty sure the reason theyre using a lead acid rather than Lithium ion is less because there's a surplus of them, and more to do with the fact that the charging circuitry can be super basic and thus cheap- you'd probably need dedicated chips for the lion, and the lead acid may well be more tolerant to trickle charging than a nicad/NiMH, going by the basically constant trickle charging they endure from the alternator of a car.
NiCd is the most tolerant of constant trickle charging out of the common battery chemistries.
Looks more like a camera housing for some reason.
Seems to be "old fashioned" not really expecting to lead acid batteries around nowadays.
Its about €8 for the LP529 torch and buying the batteries separate is nearly as much, you get a solar cell & leds for free? Interestingly Aliexpress refuses to ship to Ireland, wonder if other EU countries cant order the lead stuff
I stick a candle on my head. Almost as good
Why don't you try four candles - for a joke ;)
You no take candle
Nice break down